


Okay

by DizzyRedhead



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Anxiety, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 06:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12102498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyRedhead/pseuds/DizzyRedhead
Summary: Jack is struggling; Eric takes care of him.





	Okay

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elizabethrene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethrene/gifts).



> For elizabethrene/elzabob who requested "Bitty loving on Jack when he's having a bad anxiety day." I hope this is something like what you wanted and I hope you have/had a good birthday!!!

“Jack?”

Eric’s voice echoes through the apartment, silent enough that Jack can hear the click of the front door closing from the bedroom. He should get up. He should get out of bed and walk into the living room. Eric somehow managed to carve out an entire weekend to spend with him and made it all the way to Providence. Surely Jack can get up and make it twenty feet, no matter how heavy his body feels, how impossible a task it seems.

“Honey?” 

Eric’s voice is concerned, now. It should spur Jack into action, but it just makes everything so much worse. Eric is in his senior year, working on his thesis, captaining an NCAA team that looks like a good bet to reach the playoffs, even this early in the year. He deserves a boyfriend who can be there, who can support him, not an anxiety-ridden NHL player who can’t even be in the same state half the time. Who can’t even get out of bed--

Eric appears in the doorway, duffle bag slung over his shoulder, and Jack knows, completely and utterly, that he’s a terrible, selfish person. Eric deserves so much better--he deserves everything. But Jack can’t bring himself to let go, to push Eric away like maybe he should. 

“Hey,” Eric says softly, his bag dropping to the floor. He pads across the bedroom floor on sock feet, lifting up the covers and sliding under until he can tangle his legs with Jack’s. He’s warm, always so warm that sometimes Jack whimsically entertains the thought that he might be physically made of sunshine. “Want to talk about it?”

Jack opens his mouth to try. He wants to try, he always wants to try for Eric. It’s little enough, compared to everything Eric gives him. But everything he thinks about saying just sounds dumb, childish. He’s a professional athlete who gets paid literally millions of dollars to play the sport he loves more than anything. What has he got to complain about? So he’s closer to thirty than twenty, already worried about the strain he puts on his body. He could afford to retire any time and never have to work for the rest of his life. There’s  _ no reason _ for him to feel this way, to be shaking apart under the covers--

“It’s okay, honey,” Eric soothes, his arms tightening around Jack, pulling him close enough that there’s no space between them. “It’s okay. Let me take care of you, okay?”

Shaking his head is an automatic reaction, because no, Eric shouldn’t have to be taking care of him. Jack is a grown, adult man, he should be stronger than this, he should be  _ better-- _

“Yes.” Eric’s voice is firm, brooking no opposition. A Captain’s voice. “That’s what I’m here for, sweetheart.”

“You--you shouldn’t have to--” Jack’s voice comes out rusty, rough and jagged, his throat dust-dry.

Eric doesn’t even let him finish the sentence before interrupting. “If I was sick, you’d take care of me, right?” 

Jack nods instantly, unthinkingly. Of course he would. He’d probably be bad at it, but he could always call his mother and ask--

“And if you had the cold or the flu or ir some NHL asshole checked you wrong and you broke a bone, you can bet I’d be here with chicken soup and blankets until you recovered.”

The nod is a little more reluctant this time, because Eric doesn’t need to be taking time away from his responsibilities to care for Jack. But fair’s fair.

Eric pulls Jack even closer somehow, pressing his cheek against Jack’s to murmur directly in his ear. “Your anxiety and my ADHD, they’re a part of our bodies. A part of us. It’s real, honey. Let me take care of you, okay?”

Jack presses his face into Eric’s neck, inhales the familiar scents of detergent and cologne and skin. “Okay,” he mumbles, so quietly he doesn’t even know if Eric can hear it. 

Maybe he does, maybe he just feels the vibrations of Jack’s voice against his skin. But his hand presses gently against Jack’s back, his other hand coming up to comb through Jack’s hair. “Okay,” he echoes.

Little by little, his warmth seeps into Jack’s skin. The last thing Jack remembers before he drifts off to sleep is the brush of Eric’s lips against his cheek, and then he’s floating, wrapped up tight, safe and warm.

**Author's Note:**

> You can [follow me on Tumblr](http://dizzy-redhead.tumblr.com), if you're into that kind of thing


End file.
